Jefferson debate reaches Tehama

State of Jefferson advocates flocked to Tehama County on Wednesday to try and convince the board of supervisors to throw its support behind the separation movement.

Councilmembers from the cities of Corning and Red Bluff also arrived to discuss the declaration, although no formal action was taken.

Supervisor Dennis Garton, District 1, said the informational meeting was a starting point.

"It's for the citizens to express their ideas and concerns in an open forum, both those for and against the potential movement," Garton told the Daily News.

When asked if he thought that objective was met, Garton said, "Yes."

The pitch

The meeting opened with a recording of Mark Baird, president of the Jefferson Declaration Committee, during a speech in which he provided an overview of the secession movement's goals and objectives. Baird was unable to attend the meeting as he had an engagement in Colorado.

Tom Knorr, spokesman for the Tehama County Declaration Committee, followed the recording with a presentation detailing why Tehama should back the grassroots movement.

"For the northern counties, voting matters very little," Knorr said.

His presentation referenced two major issues northern counties face in California: a the lack of representation in the Legislature and a lack of empathy for a rural way of life.

"We're all human, but rural communities enjoy quite a bit different lifestyle than the cities," Knorr said, referencing gun laws as an example.

"City folks don't understand what we, the rural communities, need, and we likely don't understand what the city needs – or we do understand and decided to move out of the cities."

Knorr said California's more than $400 billion dollar debt and overregulation from the more than 570 state agencies were also reasons to start over.

According to the presentation, benefits of a new state would include the ability to rewrite the state constitution, enable sheriffs as the only law enforcement entities and create a more business-friendly atmosphere.

"Once we have 10 or more (counties), the people will take the next step in initiating the separation," Knorr said.

Stan Statham – former member of the California Assembly (1976-1994) who supported secession while in office – also spoke.

He said that a future declaration would be "sending a message, not passing a law."

Page 2 of 3 - "National news services refer to California as dysfunctional all the time," he said. "Now that we are finally recognizing transgenders, they'll add that to the list. California is too creative in the directions it goes."

Fiscal fiasco

Tehama chief administrator Williams Goodwin came before the board to bring up immediate fiscal considerations.

Goodwin said, "There may be a good reason to support the declaration of withdraw, but I am providing this fiscal information for the board's, council's and public's consideration."

He said significant funding for many programs would be lost if northern counties separated from California.

Goodwin provided Transportaion and Flood Control as an example, pointing out that Tehama would surrender hundreds of thousands of dollars from state, local and regional transportation funds, as well as the ability to draw from the Highway Users Tax, an annual pot of $5 million.

He called the loss of finances to the Department of Education the "most alarming." According to Goodwin, 75 percent of the county's educational funding would go missing as "$75 million of the $98 million total budget is generated outside Tehama."

Denise Snider, executive director of First 5 Tehama, also spoke on state funding. She said the organization would lose approximately $790,000 in Children and Family Act funding to serve the roughly 800 children and 900 parents and caregivers.

Public comment

During public comment, proponents for the new state provided their points of view or asked questions of the presentors.

Mike Wacker, formally of Yreka and current member of the Butte Valley Declaration Committee, asked, "What have we got to risk?"

He said, "We heard tonight these horrible things about $600,000 here and $200,000 there, but has anybody looked at all the income we would get that normally goes to California – the millions of dollars of sales, income and property taxes that would come back into the state of Jefferson?"

David Genot, of Tehama's first district, asked the board not to consider their response based on emotion or the perceived attitudes of Sacramento.

"There's been a fair amount of emotion shared here tonight with probably more to come; however, deciding our county's future on emotion is a prescription for disaster. I ask the board to look at this matter from a dollars-and-cents point of view."

Jeff Foster commented, "Those of us who live in Northern California have a choice to make: stay under the same dying dome that is California or form a new state that has our interests and rights in mind."

Next step

Speaking after the meeting attended by more than 200 people, Liz Bowen, member of the Siskiyou Declaration Committee, said, "It was a positive discussion. They gave everyone a chance to talk."

She noted that several speakers and supporters for the separation movement came from counties other than Tehama, including Gleen, Shasta and Siskiyou.

Page 3 of 3 - She said one of the more impressive aspects was the sharp, young people who advocated for separation, adding they did their research on issues such as finances.

"Many of the counties are financially stable, and a change into a positive economy for businesses would bring in the monies to fund necessary services," Bowen said.

Garton told the Daily News that the board has asked Knorr to provide more information.

"Does he have a plan to move this forward?" Garton said. "What comes after the declaration?"

He added that after the information has been received, the board would likely review it and hold another public forum

"This is a process," Garton said. "We started things moving, and we'll go from there."